Month: April 2016

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 4/25

IMWAYR 2015

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? –From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme hosted by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take. Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole bunch of titles to add to your to-read lists.

Books I Finished This Week:

I really enjoyed reading Daring Greatly by Brene Brown. It was really fascinating to think about the role that shame plays in our society and in my life. This book definitely gave me a lot to think about. I highly recommend it.

I had a chance from NetGalley to read Piper Green and the Fairy Tree: The Sea Pony by Ellen Potter. I think it is a fun read and will appeal to my lower readers. I will definitely look for this one when it comes out in August. I haven’t read any of the other Piper Green stories so now I will be looking for them also.

You know how sometimes the right book seems to fall in your lap? I have had this book for a long time, but something compelled me to find it on my Kindle and read it this week. The Wahls Protocol: How I Beat MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine by Dr. Terry Wahls outlines a diet and lifestyle plan that supports cellular health. This is one of those books that I picked up to peruse and ended up unable to put it down. The nutritional steps that she suggests taking are really aligned with what I have begun to understand to be very healthy goals. This is one of those times in which everything that I am learning seems to be converging into one set of things that I need to do to be healthier.

Books I am currently reading:

I am still listening to Winter by Marissa Meyer. This young adult series just keeps getting better. I am also still reading Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James. I am also reading In The Woods by Tana French. I had a mostly nonfiction sort of week, only really reading the novels at night before bed. I didn’t make much progress this way. I need to carve out some time this week for just sitting down and reading my books.

What’s Next?

I was approved on NetGalley to read Gae Polisner’s new book The Memory of Things. I will definitely start that this week.

What are you reading this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

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Celebrate This Week 4/23

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It’s Saturday and that means it is time to reflect on the week and celebrate things both big and small. Join our community and celebrate this week by linking up or just stopping by the host Ruth Ayres’ blog to read others’ celebrations.

This was another busy week! I love the way this habit of celebration has really made me take a look at things in a much more positive way. I could have been stressed out about my schedule being so full of extra things, but instead I have learned to celebrate it.

At school, we are in the midst of our state testing. This test…it is really challenging for many of my students. We are doing our best and I am trying hard to help the students stay positive, but we are facing down another many hours of tests and it is difficult. What I have to celebrate is that I found a way to help the students be a little less anxious. I brought my bottle of lavender oil around the classroom and let each student who wanted to smell it have a whiff. Many of the students said it helped calm them right down. I am glad for that.

On Monday, I got a new student. I am celebrating the fact that she is a sweet girl and gets along with my other students so far. I love the kiddos in my classroom. They are very accepting and I think this new student feels welcomed. I am also celebrating the opportunity I have to help this student to make some progress. It is a short amount of time, but we will work intensely to help her improve in reading.

We had a really cool program this Wednesday. My colleague arranged for a friend of hers to bring his K-9 unit dog and talk to the students about the jobs that they do. It was so awesome!

Today, I am going to a workshop that sounds really awesome. We will do some Yoga, learn about nutrition and stress management, and there is going to be a lesson about adding healthy things to your coffee. That will be interesting. I am excited to spend the morning with a friend and to practice some self-care.

What do you have to celebrate this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 4/18

IMWAYR 2015

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? –From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme hosted by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take. Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole bunch of titles to add to your to-read lists.

Books I Finished This Week:

I started too many books so I have not finished any of them.

 

 

Books I am currently reading:

I am listening to Winter by Marissa Meyer. This young adult series just keeps getting better. I am also reading Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James. I love how this author is being true to Jane Austen’s style and voice. I am loving this one so far and I am savoring it and reading slower because of this. I am more than halfway through Daring Greatly. Everyone who works with people should read this book. I also started reading In The Wood by Tana French. I can see why she won the Edgar award for this one. And last, but not least, I started reading The Wahls Protocol: How I Beat Progressive MS Using Paleo Principles and Functional Medicine By Terry Wahls. So, now you can see why I didn’t finish anything.

What’s Next?

I am not sure what I will pick up next to read. I need to finish some of the books I am reading before picking up something new.

What are you reading this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

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Celebrate This Week 4/16

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It’s Saturday and that means it is time to reflect on the week and celebrate things both big and small. Join our community and celebrate this week by linking up or just stopping by the host Ruth Ayres’ blog to read others’ celebrations.

This week felt really busy and hectic, but I was so happy for all the moments that popped up throughout the week to celebrate.

In my classroom, we are practicing mindfulness on a daily basis. I love how quiet and peaceful the room gets when we are meditating. I really think this practice is helping my students to focus on their learning. I definitely see the improvement in some of my most fidgety students. They are controlling their bodies better. I love that I am able to share this practice that is so simple but so powerful with my kiddos.

On Tuesday, we went to see the First Stage Children’s Theater production of Ella Enchanted. In class, we have been studying Cinderella stories and comparing and contrasting to find the pattern that makes them Cinderella stories. I did not think these kids would get so excited to learn about these stories. (I have twice as many boys as I do girls in my class) We are loving the stories and doing an excellent job of analyzing them. My whole class loved the play and came out of the theater discussing what was different about this story (without being prompted). I love our reading community this year.

Wednesday, I hosted an essential oils class at my home. First of all, I want to celebrate a clean house. I don’t think my house has been this clean for a while. I love that about inviting people in. Second, I have a lot more people in my life that are interested in oils than I would’ve thought. That is awesome because I am loving what the doTERRA oils are doing for me and I want to share the benefits with my friends and family. It was a nice class and I enjoyed my time with some great ladies.

Thursday, I took a half-day. Because I have MS, it is routine to do a MRI to make sure that the medicine I take is working to keep more lesions from forming. I had to do this procedure on Thursday afternoon. I HATE getting into this machine. I always need to have anxiety meds to do it. I almost didn’t have enough meds to do it. However, the technician was super patient with me and put on soothing music and gave me a lavender aromatherapy patch. I powered through and calmed my body down from the panic. It is done. I won’t have to do it again until next year. And now I know a few more tricks that I will remember for the next time. Primarily, the lavender….DUH! I am using oils at home, why didn’t I think to put some on at home? And I will ask for a different anxiety medication with a stronger dose. But, it is over and I did it so I am celebrating!

Thursday night, my husband went to a concert. One of his all-time favorite guitarists was on tour and came to Milwaukee. Since I was going to be looped up on meds, we didn’t get a ticket for me. That was okay. He loved the concert and had a great time. I got a few hours to read and write and work on some things. I had a great time too.

This week, I started a free online course called Beginning Writers Workshop. I am excited to work through the assignments in this class and jumpstart some of the fiction writing that I want to do. I love that our public library has subscribed to these courses. There is a whole catalog of things that library patrons can sign up to take. So cool!

Last, but certainly not least, I had a wonderful Friday at school. We looked at false apology poems in Writing and it was fun to see their creative ideas for what they could write. And as always, our board game time was a fabulous time of cooperation and having fun together.

What do you have to celebrate this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 4/11

IMWAYR 2015

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? –From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme hosted by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take. Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole bunch of titles to add to your to-read lists.

 

Books I Finished This Week:

I finished Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. I love Rainbow Rowell. This was such a fun read and I enjoyed the story of Simon Snow and his powerful wizardry. It is a well done story and I could not put it down as I neared the end of the book. I highly recommend this one, although I might recommend you read Fangirl first.

I listened to Queen of Shadows on Audible. I really loved the narrator and the performance of this book. I love the series and highly recommend this one to grades 7 and up. So much to love about this series. I love the twists and turns that the books take. I will be anxiously awaiting the fifth installment, which will be published in the fall of this year.

Books I am currently reading:

I am listening to Winter. This is another great young adult series. I am also reading Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D. James. I love how this author is being true to Jane Austen’s style and voice. I am loving this one so far. I also started reading Daring Greatly. This book is very thought-provoking and really fits into some of the reflections I have been doing lately.

I am also doing a unit comparing Cinderella stories from around the world. It is fun to read these stories to my students and have them work to find the similarities and differences. We are trying to answer the question, what makes these stories Cinderella stories? We are going to see the play of Ella Enchanted tomorrow and I will most likely read some of that book aloud to my class this week too.

This is not a book, but if you haven’t seen The Magicians on SyFy channel, you are really missing out. My husband and I are loving the TV series that is based on Lev Grossman’s series. I didn’t really love the first book, but now I want to get the other books to read them.

What’s Next?

I am not sure what I will pick up next to read. I might get to Kitchens of the Great Midwest this week. I will also probably read a middle grade title or two if I have the time.

What are you reading this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

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Celebrate This Week 4/10

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It’s Saturday and that means it is time to reflect on the week and celebrate things both big and small. Join our community and celebrate this week by linking up or just stopping by the host Ruth Ayres’ blog to read others’ celebrations.

This week I had a fabulous week at school. It was one of those weeks that just seems to click and we were busy learning. I wrote about our First Day Back from Spring Break on Tuesday for my Slice of Life post.

We just had so many little moments to celebrate:

  • Our Cinderella unit started this week. Many of my boys groaned when they saw the cover of the first picture book I was going to read them. Then, I talked to them about how we were going to compare the stories from around the world to find the pattern in Cinderella stories. They were a little more convinced. Then, on Tuesday, I read them the Grimm version of Cinderella. Now, they are completely hooked on our unit. It was so fun comparing the different picture books we read this week.
  • I worked a lot more mindfulness and meditation into our schedule this week. It has helped many students to calm themselves down so they can be more engaged in learning.
  • I started new literature groups. It was fun to hear students that were excited about the new books I had picked out for their group.
  • Our math times this week were very smooth as well. The transitions into our work time were smooth and everyone got right to work. That was really nice and it was great to see kids having fun with math.
  • Google docs are the new craze in my class. They figured out that they could share docs with each other and now there are multiple collaborative stories being written. Every single day this week I had students asking to come in for recess so they could write. Amazing.

Then, I also had a few things outside of school to celebrate:

  • I went to a 6am workout class this week. I had not tried it yet because I was worried about getting to work on time. I was able to get to work fine and I will be going more often in the morning. This is great because it helps me to bring a workout into days in which I have other commitments after school.
  • My husband’s birthday is today. We had a nice day celebrating with a lunch date, some frozen yogurt, and some shopping yesterday.
  • I found a pair of Dansko clogs on clearance at DSW shoe store. I got them for $30!!!

What do you have to celebrate this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

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Returning From Spring Break

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Over the weekend, I spent time thinking about all the reasons I have for looking forward to going to work. I was facing a little bit of an emotional slump since I had been sick almost the entire break and was getting a little bit upset about the break being done. Since this was happening, I decided to intentionally focus on the positives. I started to list in my head what I was looking forward to seeing from each and every student. This definitely helped me to reframe how I was feeling about going back to school.

Then, yesterday, we had a great day. As always when you get back from a break, it took a little bit of reminding to get everyone back on track. But I told my class that I was looking forward to our reading time and I meant it. You see, I bought some new books over break. I knew especially that Amulet 7 would make quite a stir…it did not disappoint. We have a wait list going. I was so pleased with how we sunk right back into our comfortable and happy routines of independent reading.

Then, I discovered the boys that are reading The 39 Clues. When Peter Lerangis was at our school the week before our break, he talked about this book series because he has written some of the books. After he left, my boys found the basket and three of them started the series. Yesterday, they peppered me with questions about how to tell the books from the first series and if there were other series. We spent a few minutes by the basket and I showed them the Infinity Ring books. They are completely hooked. I love that the author inspired them to read the series. I had already made this recommendation to them a few times and knew they would love those books so I was very happy to see them reading them. They even asked me if I would meet with them as a group so they could discuss the books. When I replied that they could do this themselves, they looked at each other and said, “book club.” I love this!

Then, as I walked through the classroom conferencing, I paused for a minute by David. He had just gasped and was sitting there with the shocked look of someone who had just found out something big. I love seeing students sucked into their stories and reacting like this.

Then came the end of our independent reading time. There was the audible groan from many and a desperate plea from one of my students, “just ten more minutes, please!” He even tried to start a chant, “Let Us Read! Let Us Read!” Luckily, this particular student is just a little more intense than the others and the chant did not catch on. There is so much that happens inside of my brain when this type of thing happens. I didn’t exactly reprimand the student for the chant, just said that that wasn’t a likely way for him to get what he wanted.

We ended our day by watching the new big ideas video on ClassDojo and picking our new avatar on GoNoodle.

If you do not use ClassDojo in your classroom, you should check it out. They have been working over the past few years to add features that teachers will want to use. I love using Class Story to write down our recap each day and send out that summary to parents. The big ideas videos are about growth mindset. My students really like these videos and ask me to play the new one when they see it pop up on our page.

The same goes for GoNoodle. We use the brain breaks on this website every single day in my classroom. I especially love that they have started to add more Yoga and Mindfulness brain breaks. My kiddos love the Koo Koo Kangaroo videos the most.

Both of these websites support my efforts to create class community. These shared experiences contribute to our collaborative environment and make our classroom a comfortable and wonderful place to be.

All in all, I am super lucky to be a teacher and to have a job I love doing. Going back to work after a vacation is always hard, but it is much easier to get back in the swing of things when you can find the good in being there.

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It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? 4/4

IMWAYR 2015

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading? –From Picture Books to YA is a weekly meme hosted by Jen at Teach Mentor Texts and Kellee at Unleashing Readers. This is a chance for bloggers to recap their week of reading and share their plans for the next reading adventures they will take. Visit the host blogs for a list of great blogs participating in this meme and a whole bunch of titles to add to your to-read lists.

Even though I was on Spring Break this week, I was sick. I just didn’t get much reading done. I was trying to make sure I finished the Slice of Life challenge and working on some other writing. I was also just feeling yucky and the sinus headaches really stopped me from reading. So the list of books I finished is really short.

Books I Finished This Week:

I enjoyed the second installment of the Seven Wonders series by Peter Lerangis. There are some good twists and turns to the plot and I know that some of my students who love a good mystery/adventure will love this one too. I am excited to get to the other three books in the series soon.

Steal Like an Artist by Austin Kleon was a really quick read, but it has really powerful ideas. I enjoyed reading the book and I like how it helped me open my mind a little more about being creative and how to do so.

Books I Am Currently Reading:

I am almost finished listening to Queen of Shadows. I love this series. I am also reading Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. It is such fun!

What’s Next?

Well, I will probably get to book three in the Seven Wonders series. I also have Death Comes to Pemberly by P.D.James from the library, along with a couple self-help books that I will want to dive into. I guess it will depend on my mood and on how much reading I can get done this week.

What are you reading this week? I would love to hear from you in the comments!

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